Police Commissioner Robert Haas speaks to reporters at Cambridge, Mass., Police headquarters,Thursday, about the actions of Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley, who was criticized by President Barack Obama after arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his Massachusetts home.

Gates has said Crowley arrested him for disorderly conduct only because he was black. Crowley was originally called to the scene because of a tip-off that someone was breaking into Gates's house. In fact, Gates was merely trying to open his front door, which was jammed.

Though Crowley was unrepentant about his actions, he did express some remorse.

"I regret that I've put the city and the Cambridge police department in the position where they now have to defend something like this, because there's a lot of good men and women working in the city to keep the city safe," Crowley said.

Crowley also said that arresting Gates "was something I really didn't want to do," but that "the professor could have resolved the issue at any time by quieting down and going back into his house."

When asked if he'd do anything differently, Crowley again denied wrongdoing, instead joking that maybe he had chosen the wrong public-safety profession, "Maybe [I'd] take the fire test."